


Honesty

by madeleone



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fic from LJ community HPCon_Envy, Fluff, Romance, hpcon_envy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-13
Updated: 2011-07-13
Packaged: 2017-10-21 08:23:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/223072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madeleone/pseuds/madeleone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione is feeling a bit blue about celebrating her thirtieth birthday.<br/>This ficlet was written for the LJ comm hpcon_envy from a prompt by m_mcgonagall_65. “Honesty is the best policy.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honesty

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I make no money here.

 

AN: Much thanks go to my beta Deemichelle for all she does.

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Hermione read the letter from her husband again. She sighed. He had totally misinterpreted her request.

 

Severus Snape was not one to wear his heart on his sleeve. He was not effusive regarding his feelings or emotions. Oh, she knew very well that he loved her, but sometimes—sometimes she just longed to have the words from him. When he had asked her what she would like for her birthday, she’d explained that she would like to have a true expression of his feelings toward her.

 

What he had produced was a love letter of epic proportions. While it was sweet and sappy and beautiful beyond compare, it was totally un-Snape-like. But the real problem lay in the fact that it was all basically a pack of pretty lies. He’d gone on and on about her beauty and grace and how attractive she was to him. She sighed again.

 

“You don’t like it,” Severus stated flatly. He had been watching her from the doorway, unbeknownst to her, and had witnessed the disappointment on her face.

 

Hermione smiled wanly. “It’s not that I don’t like it, Severus.” She paused, unsure of how to proceed. He had tried; tried very hard to say all the things he thought she wanted to hear. She didn’t want to belittle his efforts. “It’s just… I really wanted you to be truthful. This is all lovely, really it is. But…”

 

“But what, Hermione? I don’t understand, you asked for an expression of my feelings.”

 

“Severus, I wanted to hear of your honest emotions, what you feel for me and why. But I wanted the truth, not merely what you thought I would like to hear. Muggles have a saying, ‘honesty is the best policy’.”

 

“What are you prattling on about, witch? Everything I put into that letter is the truth.”

 

“Severus, really. You describe me as perfect of form, curvaceous and buxom, with a sensual appeal like no other. I know the truth is that my thighs are like tree trunks and I am thirty pounds overweight. And here…” she pointed to another line. “You go on and on about how lovely my hair is, my awful hair for God’s sake. And here you say how my eyes are entrancing, how fair my face. You say how very beautiful I am. It’s all very lovely to read, Severus. But we both know it’s all a bunch of hooey, a pack of pretty lies. It’s what you must have thought I’d want to hear.” The pages trembled in her hand and a single tear traced down her face.

 

Now it was Severus’ turn to sigh. He grasped her wrist firmly in his. “Come with me,” he stated curtly. Leading her into their bedroom he stopped before the antique cheval glass that had been her grandmother’s. Standing behind her, he wrapped his arms tightly around her. Pulling her firmly back against him, it forced her to look at herself in the mirror before them. “Now, tell me what you see when look at yourself in this mirror.”

 

She swallowed hard but answered honestly. “I see a plain featured thirty-year-old woman. With dull brown eyes, and a blotchy complexion and mousy-brown, atrocious, unmanageable hair. A woman who is thick around the middle, with heavy thighs. Someone who could stand to lose at least thirty pounds, if not more.” Her voice broke on a little sob.

 

“Shhhh…” he soothed, bending low so that his lips grazed her ear. “Now let me tell you what I see, wife.”

 

His hands skimmed ever so lightly up and down her arms, causing shivers to run down her spine. She smiled shakily at him in the mirror as he began his inventory of her attributes. “Here is what I see, Hermione. I see a woman who looks like a real woman should look, with a body that is soft and curvy and enticingly touchable. Voluptuous. Desirable.”

 

His fingertips traced up to her face as he continued, “I see eyes, not dull brown as you see, but bright, intelligent, and wondrously alive. Eyes that have seen far more pain and tragedy than is fair or right in one of thirty short years. But they are the eyes of a fierce fighter, a survivor, a magnificent warrior goddess.”

 

“Oh, Severus,” she whispered. Her eyes meeting his in the mirror.

 

“Shhh… there’s more, love, so much more,” he breathed. His lips kissed the side of her neck as she nestled firmly back against him. He gathered her hair in his hands, his fingers buried in it, inhaling the scent. “This hair that you see as mousy, atrocious and unmanageable, I see is as vibrant and alive. When the sunlight hits it just so, there are highlights of soft red and gold, and I want to clothe myself in it. When I stand, sometimes, in the back of your classroom to observe you teach, it’s all I can do not to order all of the blasted students from the room. I can barely stop myself from striding forward to confront you and thread my fingers through your hair so that I can hold you still as I plunder your mouth. This is, of course, just before I take you, there, right on top of your desk.”

 

Hermione groaned at the mental image his words painted in her brain. His fingers still in her hair, he turned her to face him and proceeded to plunder her mouth, much as he’d described in his fantasy.

 

He pushed her back a bit, and cradled her face in his hands as he gazed into her eyes. “Sometimes when I awake beside you in the morning, I watch you sleep. I stare into this beautiful face and wonder ‘why me?’ When you could have chosen anyone—anyone at all. Why did you choose me? What did I do to deserve a reward such as having you for my wife, my partner, my love? I have no idea what the answer is. But I thank the gods, or God, or Merlin, or maybe just my lucky stars that it is so.

 

“I would not lie to you, Hermione, the words in this letter and the words I give you now are the honest truth. But I think now, that perhaps I need to say them to you more often, and repeat them over and over, until you believe every single one of them. You _are_ the most beautiful thing in the world to me. And I will tell you that again and again and again, until the woman you see in that mirror is the same woman that I see.”

 

Hermione pulled him down for a long passionate kiss. “Thank you, Severus, for giving me the best birthday present I’ve ever had. I will cherish this love letter forever. I’m sorry I doubted your sincerity at first, but I really couldn’t see myself as you described. I thought you were merely painting pretty words to placate me. Perhaps in time I can begin to see myself as you see me.” She wrapped her arms around him to hug him tightly. With her face buried against his chest she mumbled, “Do you think that… I mean… That is… Maybe, could we…”

 

“What is it you want, woman?” he asked with a chuckle in his voice.

 

“Ummm… do you think we could maybe try that thing in my classroom? Without the students, of course,” she replied with a shy smile.

 

“Oh, witch, you will be the death of me yet. You see, I was right; I am the luckiest man alive. Come then, my dear Professor Granger. We need to go to your classroom so the randy Headmaster can critique your teaching methods.” He gently steered her toward the door with his hand at the small of her back. “Just remind me to lock and ward the doors when we get there. We wouldn’t want any dunderheads causing untimely interruptions.

 

“Oh, and by the way, happy birthday, love.”

 

~fin~

 


End file.
